Antec Notebook Cooler Black & Silver

The new design really works.

Posted Jan 23, 2006 - When I first saw it on sale for $15 at a local store, I had some doubt on it. Finally I went back to get one today to give it a try since I found additional discount. There are several versions of Antec Notebook Coolers. First, there are different colors. Second, there are different designs. The old one put the two fan in the center that blow air directly off the bottom of the cooler. That creates a problem when using it on your lap. The vent would be blocked. The new one blows air to the right side and back side. It also adds the two speed control instead of simple on-off switch. It gets power from the USB port with a proprietric cable that has a pass through USB port. That is a great idea and it would be even better if the dongle is not an inch long. The bright LED power indicator match my laptop perfectly, but I would rather skip that to save battery. The cooler is perfect for 14" laptop and it would also work for 15" ones. With my 15.4" wide screen DV4000, the legs are sitting on the edge of the cooler. If you have a larger laptop, you may need to look somewhere else. The most important question is how does it perform in cooling down my laptop. I have an HP DV4000 with a 5400RPM HD and an ATI x700 GPU running at 350MHz. I can hardly use it on my lap with the heat it generated, particular when I blocked the fan on the bottom side with my leg. Before I get the cooler, the typical operating temperature is around 45C. Occassionally, it went up to over 70C when I am using it on my bed with the comforter blocked the fans on bottom and the back. When I first hook up the cooler, I did not see any drastic effect. I kept checking the temperature with the NHC program for a few minutes and CPU temperature seems to stay at low 40s. Then I forgot about the cooler and use the laptop for several hours. When I checked the temperature again, it went down to 35C and it stays at that temperature at least for several hours until I turned it off. I have never seen my laptop running at this temperature before. When the laptop was cold started, as soon as Windows finished starting up and loaded the NHC software, the temperature used to get be over 45C. In other words, the cooler really works and it cut down the CPU temperature by at least 10C after running for a while. I highly recommend this cooler, especially if you can find a deal for less than $15.

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Worth while.

Posted Jan 20, 2006 - I expect there are better coolers out there, but for its price/performance point, I think this items is the best to be had. One thing is does do is push fresh air toward the bottom of the laptop, which may seem backward, but if you have a video card that requires cooling this is much better than trying to pull the heat down and away.

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